Historic Center – João Pessoa

The cute little capital of João Pessoa was founded in August of 1585 and first ruled by the Portuguese, then taken over by the Netherlands, and later reclaimed by the Portuguese. It went through a few name changes and the current namesake “João Pessoa” is a state politician João Pessoa Cavalcanti di Albuqerque who was assassinated in Recife in 1930 which caused a grand commotion…. I just love scandal so I decided to head to the João Pessoa historic center.

My time in the center, however, was rather scandal free, arriving just before sunset and spending precious little more than an hour there. It was a quick tour, under the brief and perfect lighting of magic hour. The warm sun spills onto the pastel colored buildings, cutting a line across the church.

Igreja de São Frei Pedro Gonçalves

I catch another person in what I’m noticing is one of my favorite aesthetics here in Brazil: person in window or the alternative, person in doorway. The older and more colorful the building the better.

There’s some cool graffitis and cafés.

And an incredibly gorgeous sunset, filled with bubble gum pink clouds and orange cutting through the sky. They almost look part of a painting floating around up there above the city.

I’ve had quite good luck with epic sunsets here in Brazil… they’re beautiful in Los Angeles too, but we just don’t have the cloud base and we tend to burn the chemical reds while here you get the full spectrum rainbow.